"I'm going to be working with a group focusing on circadian rhythms and the genetics of them. [The group] is much more high tech [than the UMass lab] ... but it's the same field," she said. "I wanted to work in a place where I wouldn't have to learn everything from scratch, where I already had a working knowledge and could hit the ground running."
Bickford, a neuroscience major at the College, performed her thesis work at the UMass lab under UMass Professor of Biology Eric Bittman, as one part of a larger project in the field.
"We were trying to figure out how the genetics of behavioral circadian rhythms work in mice ... humans also have circadian rhythms-they can be seen in things such as jet lag-and there is evidence that they may ... have to do with certain forms of depression," said Bickford. "But we're very much in the early end of clinical application; it's still a young, fascinating field where there have been a lot of great leaps in a very few years."
"We've done a lot of work with hamsters in the lab, but [Bickford] was the first one to work with mice and the first to do neurosurgery on mice in the lab," said Bittman. "She got a lot of things started in the lab that we hadn't been able to do before. That got us started on this project, and hopefully we'll be able to continue what she started."
When Bickford pursues her Fulbright studies, it will not be her first time working in Germany nor her first time at a Maxwell Blanc Institute. She took a year off following her sophomore year and worked in Tuebingen, Germany at the Maxwell Blanc Institute for Biological Cybernetics, working with an alternative method to the MRI of measuring electric signals from the human brain.
"It's hard to study abroad with a neuroscience major, so I thought it would be interesting to spend some time and work in Germany for a year, because I'd studied German for a long time. I went all over Germany staying with friends, friends of friends and families of colleagues," said Bickford."
Curtain call
While in Germany, Bickford joined an American theater group in which she was the only non-German. While she has only performed in one play at the College, she was an active part of the group in Germany, playing the narrator in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and participating in several other plays including Woody Allen's "God."
"I was trying to meet people, mostly," said Bickford about her sudden increased participation in theater performances while in Germany. "I actually studied theater when I was younger; I just don't have time [at Amherst] and I had time in Germany to do it. I love theater."
Bickford graduated from the Alabama School of Math and Science after spending grades seven through 10 at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. "I realized that I wasn't going to be an actress; that wasn't what I was looking for," said Bickford of her transfer. "I'm interested in puzzles and solving them, not that theater doesn't have that: but I have a much too scientific mind for theater to do it professionally."
Much of Bickford's time at the College was consumed by the neuroscience major's 16 course requirements, but she has been involved in women's chorus, taught aerobics, taken voice lessons and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity various times.
"Ali's a very unique blend of a dork and an absolutely fun-loving person," said Nyssa Francis '02, a friend of Bickford's. "She's a total nerd, but she also knows how to have fun; she's a perfect blend of those two."
Both Bickford's mother and stepfather are schoolteachers in Birmingham, Alabama, teaching gifted students and elementary science, respectively. Bickford considers her grandfather, with whom she resided until she was five and who has encouraged her interest in international affairs, a substantial influence in her life.
When opportunity knocks
Following her graduation from the College and prior to her Fulbright work in Germany, Bickford plans to go to Siberia, Russia to see another Fulbright scholar and friend studying Siberian languages.
In order to accept the Fulbright Scholarship, Bickford chose to defer her acceptance into the prestigious National Institute of Health-funded eight-year M.D./Ph.D. program at Northwestern, which is designed for medically trained scientists. She intends to get her Ph.D. in neuroscience through the program and then move on to clinical research.
"It's amazing that we have a neuroscience major at a liberal arts college and it was really nice to have so many neuroscience majors this year-you had a community to talk to," said Bickford. "I've had a really good time here, but I'm really ready to move on. I'm looking forward to missing Amherst."